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NATO defense ministers will meet on Wednesday and try to garner more military support ukraine Amid a sharp decline in the supply of arms and ammunition to the war-torn country in recent months.
Ministers will also debate a call for NATO commanders to lift restrictions on the use of their aircraft and other equipment so they can be used to defend the alliance’s eastern border. RussiaBelarus and Ukraine more effectively.
A series of mysterious drone incidents and airspace violations by Russian warplanes have heightened the President’s concerns Vladimir Putin It may be that he is testing NATO’s defensive alertness. Some leaders have accused him of waging a hybrid war EuropeMoscow denies investigation into NATO security.
Military support for Ukraine is declining
Russia’s traditional war on its neighbor now focuses on Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter. Moscow’s latest campaign aims to disable Ukraine’s power supply, depriving citizens of heat and running water as temperatures drop.
Meanwhile, new data on Western military aid to Ukraine shows a 43% decline in July and August compared to the first half of the year, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks defense and financial aid to Kiev.
The decline also came as European allies began purchasing U.S. arms for Ukraine under a financing arrangement known as the Priority Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL. The United States does not donate any equipment to Ukraine, either through the plan or bilaterally.
Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden are buying American weapons to send to Ukraine. But Italy and Spain, among the other members of the 32-nation alliance, are sending far less than these NATO partners.
“Again and again, some countries fall far short of what they should be doing,” a senior NATO diplomat said before the meeting. “If Ukraine falls,” he said, “defense spending will be much higher than 5% of GDP”, which is NATO’s current and ambitious spending target.
The diplomat briefed reporters about the concerns on the condition that he not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Many countries – Italy included – are struggling with economic challenges. France believes that European money would be better invested in the defense industry of Europe rather than the US and has no intention of participating in PURL.
defending nato’s eastern front
The deployment of NATO air defense in the eastern flank has not yet deprived Ukraine of military resources. But top alliance officials want countries to lift restrictions on equipment sent there to defend NATO airspace against threats from Russia.
“We still have some of these national warnings, and they are holding us back. They are making us less effective,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told lawmakers in Slovenia on Monday.
NATO established an air defense operation called Eastern Sentry last month after several Russian drones entered Polish airspace. It is one of three air defense operations on the east coast. The second operates in the Baltic Sea region, and the third covers Poland’s border with Ukraine.
NATO’s supreme allied commander, or SACEUR, US Lieutenant General Alex Grinkevich, believes the response to the airspace incidents in Poland and Estonia was “textbook”. But he wants to be free to use the aircraft in any of those missions elsewhere, providing an integrated air shield with normal rules of engagement.
Restrictions on allowing combat aircraft to carry weapons also create challenges.
“The more national warnings are issued, the more difficult it will be for SACEUR, particularly our fighter jet assets,” U.S. NATO envoy Matthew Whitaker told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s meeting.
Diplomats say Grinkevich is reviewing what NATO needs to manage the new challenges it faces. He is expected to share his plans with member states early next year.